America has been watching with excitement for two weeks the trial of Alex Murdaugh, a powerful Southern lawyer accused of killing his wife and son, a true chronicle of the downfall of a crook disguised as a notable.
As in an Agatha Christie novel, high society, domestic workers and betrayed friends parade at the bar under the eager eyes of the cameras broadcasting the hearings live in the United States.
Wednesday, theater putsch: Because of a bomb threat, the origin of which remains a mystery, they were suspended for two hours.
Once proceedings resumed, cameras once again focused on the defendant, a burly 54-year-old red-haired man who has taken responsibility for the 2021 shooting of his wife Maggie, 52, and their younger brother Paul, 22, on theirs Property in South Carolina to death.
Coming from a long line of very influential local judges and prosecutors, he knows the courtroom world well. His trial also required him to take the painting from his grandfather, who had long served at Walterboro court.
This wealthy family fascinates the media, which consistently airs a very glamorous photo of the Murdaugh couple with their two boys – she in a fur coat, the men in black tuxedos – as well as aerial shots of their vast estate, nicknamed “Moselle”. , where men liked to hunt wild boar.
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On June 7, 2021, this bourgeois decor turned into a crime scene.
Just after 10 p.m., Alex Murdaugh called for help in a groaning voice, stating that he had discovered the lifeless bodies of Maggie and Paul near the kennel.
He assured investigators that he made this macabre discovery immediately after visiting his mother, a senile woman who could not corroborate what he said.
On the witness stand, the old lady’s caregiver confirmed that he had spent “twenty minutes” by her side that evening, but reported worrying pressure over the following days. In a one-on-one interview, “he told me he’d be staying 30 to 40 minutes,” and the next day he offered to sponsor “my wedding party,” Mushel Smith explained, clearly uncomfortable.
This discrepancy is significant because according to prosecutors, the killings took place around 9:45 p.m., after which the victims stopped answering the phone.
However, a minute earlier, Paul was chatting with a friend about an injured puppy. To show him the animal, he had recorded a video that he didn’t have time to send.
The investigators recovered it: we hear Paul, his mother and a man’s voice.
For prosecutors and several witnesses, Alex Murdaugh is undoubtedly at stake.
dark side
Never could a father who was widely believed to have had a “loving relationship” with his wife and children commit such a “horrific” murder,” said his attorney Richard Harpootlian, pointing to the lack of “material evidence”.
Alex Murdaugh has a dark side, prosecutors said: to support his lifestyle and opiate addiction, he stole insane amounts of money from his law firm, his clients, his relatives for years… and is about to be exposed.
First, because his son Paul killed one of his friends while drunk while boating in 2019. As the trial neared, the courts sought to learn the state of the father’s finances to see if he could pay damages.
Then because the chief financial officer of his law firm had discovered anomalies in his files. On the morning of the murder she had asked him for an explanation.
Finally, for embezzling millions of dollars paid by an insurance company to the relatives of his cleaning lady, Gloria Satterfield, who died after falling down the stairs of the Moselle.
At the helm, his son Michael Satterfield, a frail young man in a sweatshirt, stated that he, too, held Alex Murdaugh accountable in June 2021.
insurance fraud
For prosecutors, the cornered father devised a desperate plan to divert attention. With suicidal intent.
Two months after the murders, he was found on a street with his head bleeding.
The investigation quickly revealed that he had asked a former client to kill him so his eldest son, Buster, would get a $10 million life insurance policy. But his accomplice missed it.
This insurance fraud, as well as the hundreds of scams that have been uncovered since the murders, will be judged later.
The jury must first reach its verdict. Alex Murdaugh faces the death penalty.
Without waiting, several podcasts and documentaries have already traced his journey. The Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal is slated for release on Netflix in the US on February 22nd. And Hulu is preparing an adjustment.